The field of this invention is the manufacture of jewelry chains and more particularly the manufacture of hollow and solid chains.
Faceting a jewelry chain means creating flat surfaces or facets in the links of the jewelry chain. For this purpose of faceting, jewelry chains may be divided into two types: xe2x80x9chollow chainsxe2x80x9d in which the links are hollow and xe2x80x9csolid chainsxe2x80x9d in which the links are solid. It is known that for hollow jewelry chains, faceting involves flattening a curved portion of the links of the chain to create a facet. It is similarly, well known that for solid jewelry chains, faceting involve actually cutting the links, a process that essentially involves removing a segment or a slice of the curved surface of the link to yield a remaining link with a facet, or a flat face in a portion of it. One would not want to cut hollow chains since that would yield holes exposed in the links. Accordingly, different processes are used for faceting solid chains than for faceting hollow chains. Whatever apparatus or tool would be used for one process would not be used for the other and vice versa.
One purpose of faceting is to create flat surfaces in the links that are shiny and reflect light for a sparkling effect.
Various methods of making facets on jewelry chains are known including employing incremental deformative thrusts of blunt force against an outer wall portion to deform the links and provide a flattened surface, as in U.S. Pat. No. 5,797, 258 to Strobel, or using a continuous rolling force by means of a pressure roller against the links to flatten the outer curved wall and form a facet that way.
It has been noted that the main purpose of the use of hollow as opposed to solid chains is simply the reduction in the use of the metal material and hence a reduction in the cost. It may be desirable in certain cases to manufacture chains having only a portion of whose links are hollow and the remainder solid. It would be advantageous to be able to perform faceting of such a chain with one apparatus to avoid the inconvenience and difficulty of switching from one method and apparatus to another.
The known methods and apparatus of the prior art are not sufficiently versatile with one mechanism to be able make a variety of different kinds and sizes of facets in a jewelry chain with minimal adjustment. In addition the prior art methods do not use make use of the regularity and convenience of motors. In addition, the known methods are not applicable to both hollow and solid chains and they suffer from various other drawbacks and disadvantages. The known methods and apparatuses of the prior art also suffer from the fact that instead of perfectly flat facets being created, sometimes curved faces result from the pushing against the jewelry while it is turning while on the drum. A further disadvantage is the accidental ripping of the jewelry chain.
The present invention offers a new method and apparatus of making facets in both hollow and solid chains and thereby overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art while also offering new and additional advantages.
The following important objects and advantages of the present invention are:
(1) to provide a method of faceting jewelry chains that is applicable to both hollow and solid chains and to chains partly made of solid links and partly made of hollow links;
(2) to provide a method of faceting jewelry chains that are made of curved chain links that are either hollow or solid;
(3) to provide a method of faceting hollow jewelry chains applicable to jewelry chains that have portion of the links that are hollow and a portion of the links that are solid;
(4) to provide a method of faceting solid jewelry chains applicable to jewelry chains that have portion of the links that are hollow and a portion of the links that are solid;
(5) to provide a method of faceting jewelry chains that makes use of the power of an electric motor to control the speed and direction of the cutting wheel that strikes the links;
(6) to provide a method of faceting jewelry chains that employs a cutting wheel that either flattens hollow chain links or cuts solid chain links depending upon the direction of the rotation of the cutting wheel;
(7) to provide a method of faceting jewelry chains that employs a cutting wheel that strikes each link in the jewelry chain multiple times;
(8) to provide a method and apparatus of faceting jewelry chains that allows the different size and shaped facets to be made merely by varying the number and teeth in the cutting wheel and the diameter of the cutting wheel;
(9) to provide a method and apparatus of faceting jewelry chains that operates in conjunction with an ice lathe by adding to the ice lathe a platform having affixed thereto an electric motor that turns a shaft connected by pulleys to a freely rotating arbor holding a cutting wheel, the cutting wheel perpendicular to the drum of the ice lathe holding the chain; and
(10) to provide a method and apparatus of faceting jewelry chains wherein flat facets are created without bulging and without accidental breaking of the jewelry chain.